particular class of speculative opinions, he has produced a body of psychological and historical facts of the highest interest and importance, and has thence deduced the soundest and most ennobling inferences bearing on the practice of mankind. In English we have no work of a kind so comprehensive; and should the work be considered too cumbrous in itself for transference into our language, it is to be regretted that its masterly and profound introduction, at least, has not been translated. It embodies the same absolute dependence on faith, as the key to man's inner spiritual life, which Jacobi and those of his school inculcate. In every phase of his later life, Reinhard showed but a broader and more decided development of this resting on the imperishable Rock. And there was nothing more emphatic, when the curtain was in the end drawing round his spirit, than his declaration of a perfect adherence to the faith which warms and animates the humblest Christian disciple, even when the clammy dews of death stand in beaded drops upon his forehead. Requiescat in pace!

W. R.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The Mass, by WILLIAM ANDERSON, L.L.D. Glasgow: Robert Jackson, St. Enoch Square. 1851.

THERE are some men who write too much, and there are others who write too little. Dr. Anderson is of the latter class, and, now that he is fairly committed to the public, we hope that he will not be so shy for the future, but continue, from time to time, to give us books, which, if equal to his past productions, will be an honour to himself as an author, and to the Body to which he belongs. He is undoubtedly a man of genius and of scholarship, of intense earnestness of mind, and of uncompromising boldness in the enumeration of his views. This is the man, we say, for the age, and we only wish that the number of such men were increased. On looking at the Almanac, we see that the Rev. Dr. has been three-and-twenty years a minister, which must make him, we should suppose, a man, if not far, at least well advanced in life, and yet we have been favoured with nothing from his pen until now. But we shall not grudge him the past, if what is to come equal in excellence what we have already received. Dante and Richardson, and many others we could name, did not become authors till comparatively late in life; but who will say we have lost anything from their tardiness of authorship? Is it not the probability rather that we have gained, and that much? Not that every young author is a fool for his pains. This were to affirm too much. There is a precosity, as well as a maturity of genius, of which precosity Keats, and Shelley, and Byron, and Thomas Brown the metaphysician, and Napoleon Buonaparte, are brilliant examples. Dr. Anderson's mind is of the "maturity of genius" order; and as versatility is always an attribute of genius, whether precocious or mature, we find it forthcoming in the present instance. He is as expert a conversationalist, as he is profound as a theologian; and never was the "man of sin" more thoroughly broken over the wheel, than he is in the work before us. Whilst the subject of the Mass forms the principal theme of discussion, the whole system of Popery is incidentally embraced, and ground, as God would have it to be, into powder. The book may be called a theological avalanche,

washing, with overwhelming effect, this refuge of lies. Every page, like a thunderbolt, is charged with convincing argument, noble Scripture denunciation, polished sarcasm, and withering scorn; and you reach the conclusion with the thought rising to your lips, "Well, this said mass is done for, for ever."-There are several things about the book, and about the author, which call for our high approval. We admire the prominent place which he assigns to the Reformation, to Reformation principles, and Reformation heroes. We are grieved to say it, but it is a fact, that dissenters generally, be they Scotch or be they English, are no great admirers of either. It is seldom that you find, in their speeches or their writings, any allusion to the work, or the men of the Reformation. It would not be difficult, had we either the time or the inclination, to elicit the reason, but this much we say, generally their denominationalism has swallowed up everything else. Dr. Anderson, however, is an honourable exception, and he has heart enough to quote John Knox,-" Well done, thou honest champion of the west, we are glad to see thee above the prejudices of voluntaryism after all! astute voluntary, thyself, though we know thee to be!" A man of genius, of enlarged and earnest sympathies, will not, cannot be fettered; and we see from the public prints that this same Dr. William Anderson, of John Street, Glasgow, was the only dissenting minister who came forward, on the right ground, to resist the Papal Aggression. The rest of his brethren had, we believe, a meeting of their own, and came to the adoption of a certain manifesto, in which their voluntary notions were strangely and ridiculously blended with their professed denunciation of Popery. Dr. Anderson, if we mistake not, called upon the interference of the civil power to put forth its resistance to the Papal invasion, and he was right; and this, and this only, is what will, or what can, put the monster down. If Popery had been purely a religious system, however false, we would have said, let it alone, and confront and oppose it, by the force of truth,-but it is not so.-It is essentially a civil system, grasping at the civil rights and liberties of the commonwealth, and seeking to bring all under its own odious and enthralling dominion; and, therefore, we say to such an attempt as that by which our country has been lately visited-" Thus far shalt thou come, and no farther." Britain will never be enslaved. We like also the slashing, as he goes along, which he gives to that "little sister" of Popery, Puseyism. It has never been sufficiently exposed, and we need a Seymour or an Anderson to lay it fairly under the knife;-we would recommend our author to take the hint, and if he do discuss the subject, we would advise him to remember both sides of the Tweed. In treating of the Mass, the author divides it into six parts-its Priest and Altar, its Consecration, its Elevation of the Host for Adoration, its Oblation as an Expiatory Sacrifice, its Sacramental Communion by the Priest, and its Communion by the People. Each head is treated with masterly skill; and we must say that, in both laying down his premises, as well as giving his quotations, the author deals fairly and impartially with Popery. He takes no undue advantage; but, like a man daring in truth and conscious of his strength, he gives us the true state of the case, and then, with swift decision, proceeds to the work of demolition. There are, also, added too stirring theological lectures on the "Man of Sin" and the "Genius and power of Popery;" and it is not too much to say, that the recent controversy has not given birth to a publication of greater value and power than the one before us. The management of the subject is everything that could be wished; and, either as a manual of private information or of public controversy, we believe it cannot be surpassed. Had our space permitted, we should have been glad to have given our readers an extract from each chapter; but, as it is, we give the following as specimens of the whole :-"Papists and Puseyites endeavour to reduce the offensiveness of

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the dogma for all intelligent minds, by explaining that, in order to the efficacy, there must be no obstacle of mortal sin; and that there must be, on the part of the communicant, the general faith, that it is the body of Christ which he receives. The first of these qualifications has evidently little pertinency to the question, and the second is only the general rule; for, although it should be denied that the Viaticum is legitimately administered to the dying, in a state of insensibility, yet we have the authority of the Catechism for maintaining that it is lawfully administered to the insane, who were formerly pious, although they may be incapable of acting faith on it, in any degree. But, though the rule were absolute, that there must be a general faith of its being Christ's body which is received, all other active exercise of the mind is excluded. To represent it as necessary would be an entire evacuation of the dogma. It would represent the salvation as depending ex opere operantis, a representation, which the ex opere operato theory is expressly designed to oppose, as a heresy. Without any external motive, as their doctors express it, on the part of the communicant accompanying the external sacramental act,' that Host goes down, and 'cleaving to the bowels,' works within him, as a passive subject, all the salutary effect. But, why be so anxious to prove that this is the Popish doctrine? They do not deny it: deny it! they boast of it,-that their priests are endowed with a power to compound charms of such potency. And Dr. Hook, envious of the prerogative, put in the claim of a share of it for himself and his brethren of the apostolic succession, when, to her face, he warned our Queen, in the name of the Puseyite fraternity, that so many of her subjects were perishing under such unauthorised ministries as those of Robert Hall, and Pye Smith, and Thomas Chalmers, because they were unable to compound the pill, and mix the potion of Christ's flesh and blood for the people. That is precisely the intellectual and moral education, for which this country, calling itself enlightened, free, religious, and Protestant, is taxed in millions of its wealth!"-A doctrine, by the bye, of which Dr. Hook is not the sole expositor. It is this very doctrine, which that dilettanti statesman, and would-be theologian, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, of the order of St. Pusey, labours with his usual turbid tortuosity to substantiate, and for which Macaulay and Rogers so thoroughly drilled him in the Edinburgh Review. Apostolical Succession, with all its consequent and attendant virtues, and professing Protestants to contend for it-what a farce! Nowhere have we found the carnal adaptation of Popery to human nature under the guise of religion, so briefly and correctly stated as in the closing paper on "the Genius and Power of Popery," and we cannot resist the temptation of giving the whole head to our readers. With this we take leave of the author and his work; believing that it is not too much to affirm of the one, that "he is a master in Israel," and of the other, that it is a master-piece.

“I observe, then,” says he, “in the first place, that the grand secret of the power of Popery lies in the manner in which it lulls the conscience of its victim, with the persuasion of his being religious, when yet, by its accommodations, it gives liberty to the natural enmity of his heart, to live at a distance from God, in a state of estrangement from him. Man cannot subsist without a religion. In one form or another, he must have a worship of God, in the hope of preventing or removing his displeasure, and securing his favour. Without this, there is no happiness for him, but a restlessness of gloomy presentiment, not the less afflictive, that it is frequently vague and undefined; and a gulf-like void within his bosom, which no earthly love, or honour, or learning, or wealth, or luxury will fill up. It is of little importance to determine whether this proceed from an innate sense of God in the soul, or be, as I think it is, the result of the natural operation of its

other faculties and sensibilities, producing the demonstration, or the readiness to receive the demonstration of a great first cause. Whatever be their origin, there the presentiment and void are imploring to be soothed, and craving to be replenished. Most of those who have attempted to resist this sentiment of God, have either returned to cherish it, or have died miserably, confessing that, in their most joyous hours, peace was a stranger to their bosoms. Observe further, that, of all the systems which have been proposed for the adoption of the natural religious sentiment, the Christian is the only one which is accredited by sufficient evidence, either externally or internally, for an enquiring mind; but then, just in proportion to the strength of its evidence, is the holy character which it gives of God repulsive to the naturally depraved heart. There are only three ways in which this difficulty is to be met. The first is by the heart taking all the blame to itself, and humbly succumbing, this is the course of a Protestant evangelical faith. The second is by its falling back and questioning the validity of the evidence, this is the course of infidelity and atheism. The third, and that adopted by Popery, is to admit all, and to endeavour to quiet the conscience by a confession of the Bible's God, when it yet contrives to have as little direct and personal intercourse with him as possible,—this is Popery's great compromise betwixt faith and the ungodliness of an unregenerated heart. Natural conscience calls for a God; natural depravity deprecates communion with him, and beseeches that he be revealed only at a distance and obscurely. Popery answers both demands. It does this by its vast system of the mediation and intercession, and consequently idolatry of angels, and of saints, and of priests. These it interposes betwixt God and the soul, to save it the pain and annoyance of personal communion with him; when, nevertheless, it is permitted to flatter itself with the thought that it does not deny him, and that he will accept of its worship. This was the origin of the pagan idolatry. The Apostle declares expressly, that although they knew God, yet not liking to retain him in their knowledge, they changed his glory into an image, made like to corruptible man.' They could not endure the effulgence of his holiness shining directly, and interposed the image; pretending that, as a likeness or symbol of God, it helped them to conceive of him more distinctly; whereas the true intent was to rid themselves of immediate intercourse with himself, when, yet, the conscience was pacified by a sort of acknowledgment of Him. Human nature is ever the same in its principles, and remarkably uniform in its devices. Observe how the Pagan principle manifests itself in Popery. When the mystery of iniquity was in embryo, in the days of the Apostles, they had commenced the worshipping of angels, and, mark you, with the very same apology which Papists plead at the present day; the Apostle says, it was a show of voluntary humility.' These early corrupters of the Church-the true Fathers of the Church of Rome-affected to have such an humbling sense of their own unworthiness, that they dared not approach the divine presence themselves, and, therefore, paid their court to angels, soliciting their mediation. But the truth was, that, from aversion to the divine holiness, and desire to be delivered from communion with it, they betook themselves to a lower and more endurable form of it.

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"As the corruption of the Church proceeded, even angel-holiness was felt too oppressive, and the mediation was reduced still lower, by the intercession of saints. But neither was this sufficient. For, although these saints had once been men and women of like passions with themselves, yet being now glorified, intercourse with such heavenly purity was still oppressive. The relief was provided by interposing the image-not for the purpose of helping to a better conception of the celestial glory of Mary, or Peter, or John, but for the very opposite of this, that, by the earthly forms,

the glory might be reduced, and made less oppressive to the unsanctified heart. It was thus that the idol-statuary and painting of the Pantheon came to be rivalled by those of St. Peter's; yea, to be transferred thither, with such easy conversions, as that of a Bacchus into a Peter, and that of a Venus into a Virgin. When, tracing the progress of degradation, we have found the worshipper prostrate before the image of the saint, you might suppose that the heart had contrived to remove itself far enough from any intercourse with God. But, in such a supposition you would be mistaken. Though that image greatly obscures the holiness of the heavenly vision, yet does it suggest a character of more than ordinary sanctity; and the heart seeks for relief by intercourse with something less holy still. It has, therefore, devised for itself the Priest-the flesh and blood Priest-the Priest, who drinks wine and makes merry jokes with the squire, and gossips at the tea-table with his daughters. If intercourse with such a one shall enable the heart to dispense with intercourse with the holy God, shall not all its difficulties be, at last, surmounted? Well, Popery has performed the feat! It has constituted that same nice, pleasant, jocular gentleman, the great agent of your salvation, with whom it has deposited the power of pardoning and saving you. It is with him, and not God, that you are appointed to transact. Is not that excellent? You and he have been laughing, and making merry to-night; what reluctance can you feel in approaching him at the confessional to-morrow? That, which burdens your conscience, is possibly a profane conversation, in which you engaged with himself, and which he prompted and encouraged. You cannot fail of finding an easy shift, and being sent home with a light heart, assured that all is forgiven. 'If any one saith that these words of the Lord, the Saviour, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained,' are not to be understood of the power of forgiving and retaining sins in the sacrament of penance, but wrests them, contrary to the constitution of this sacrament, to the power of preaching the gospel, let him be Anathenm. In this Popery stands perfected, as a system, which delivers the unsanctified sinner from all necessity of direct and personal intercourse and communion with the Holy and Spiritual eternal One. In this consists its grand attraction for the multitude of the cultivated, as well as the rude. It furnishes the conscience with a pretence of religion, and yet exempts the natural heart almost entirely from the offensiveness and distress of the presence of the great object of religion. To such an extent is this the case, that many, who were once zealous adherents to the system, but who have been rescued from its delusion, acknowledge that, on their being awakened from their dream, the very idea of God seemed new and strange to them, in consequence of the manner in which he had been concealed, and removed to a distance, by the multitude of interposed mediators."

Daily Bible Illustrations, by JOHN KITTO, D.D., F.S.A. Solomon and the Kings. October, December. Edinburgh, William Oliphant & Sons. London, Hamilton, Adams & Co. 1851.

We have sufficiently indicated our opinion of Dr. Kitto as a writer, and of the series of Daily Bible Illustrations, of which this is the concluding volume, in our notices of the former; and we are happy to say that this, the last of the series, is characterized by the high excellence of its fellows. The learning, the acquaintance with history, biography, antiquities, manners and customs of the east, and almost every field of literature it is possible to name, which these volumes display, is truly wonderful. No work, in this or any